Grand Art Exhibitions You Have to See in 2017

A philosophy graduate interested in theory, politics and art. Alias of Jelena Martinović.

The end of the year is just around the corner, and this is usually the time when we take a look back and review everything that’s behind us. There have been many art exhibitions all around the world that have managed to take our breath, teach us something or make us revisit the art and artists we love. Yet, this is also a time to look into the future and see what grand art exhibitions await us in the year to come. Renowned world art institutions and museums have already announced their 2017 exhibition program, and according to the offer, it seems that the next year will be a very exhilarating one.

There are many exhibitions in 2017 that should be on your list, but we have picked ten most exciting ones.

From fresh surveys of movements such as De Stijl and Surrealism, to retrospectives of legends of Modern Art, to pioneers of photography and relevant figures in Contemporary Art, all of these exhibitions are definitely worth the trip.

O’Keeffe, Preston, and Cossington Smith at Heide Museum of Modern Art

Located in the suburbs of Melbourne, The Heide Museum of Modern Art presents the exhibition Making Modernism that brings together for the first time the iconic art of Georgia O’Keeffe alongside modernist masterpieces by pioneering Australian artists Margaret Preston and Grace Cossington Smith. The exhibition will present thirty pieces by each artist, bringing new perspectives to light about modernism’s dispersal and reinvention as it developed beyond the metropolitan wellspring of Europe. The exhibition O’Keeffe, Preston, Cossington Smith: Making Modernism will be on view until February 19th, 2017.

Anish Kapoor at MACRO

Considered one of the greatest artists of the contemporary scene, Anish Kapoor will finally be back to exhibit in an Italian museum after more than 10 years. Curated by Mario Codognato, Museo D’Arte Contemporanea Roma will present the exhibition featuring the latest body of work by the acclaimed artist. Simply entitled Anish Kapoor, the exhibition will be on view from December 17th, 2016 until April 17th, 2017.

Featured image: Anish Kapoor, via canadianart.ca

Cy Twombly at Centre Pompidou

Centre Pompidou in Paris is currently hosting a major retrospective of the work of Cy Twombly. Organized around three major cycles – Nine Discourses on Commodus (1963), Fifty Days at Iliam (1978) and Coronation of Sesostris (2000) – this retrospective covers the artist’s entire career in a chronological circuit. The exhibition will feature some 140 paintings, sculptures, drawings, and photographs, including some iconic Twombly’s pieces that have never been exhibited in France before, providing a clear picture of an extraordinarily rich body of work which is both intellectual and sensual. The Cy Twombly exhibition will be on view until April 24th, 2017.

Yayoi Kusama at Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden

The exhibition Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors, a comprehensive survey exhibition that explores the evolution of Yayoi Kusama’s immersive infinity rooms, will travel through the United States and Canada in the most significant North American tour of her work in nearly two decades. It will feature her signature series that includes complex installations and purpose-built rooms lined with mirrored glass and filled with various items, is both cosmic and intimate, merging inner and outer space. The visitors will have a unique opportunity to experience six ofKusama’s most iconic kaleidoscopic rooms organized in a rough chronological order – Infinity Mirror Room – Phalli’s Field, Infinity Mirror Room – Love Forever, Dots Obsession – Love Transformed into Dots, Obliteration Room, ftermath of Obliteration of Eternity and Souls of Millions of Light Years Away. The exhibition will be first exhibited in the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden from February 23rd until May 14th, 2017.

Featured images: Yayoi Kusama – All the Eternal Love I have for Pumpkins

De Stijl at The Stedelijk

As part of the 100 years of De Stijl program, The Stedelijk in Amsterdam will present the breadth of its collection of De Stijl, and explore relationships between the movement and the work of other artists in the museum’s holdings. In the examination of different facets such as the use of color, diagonal purity, architecture and the dissemination of the movement, De Stijl artworks that powerfully convey this ideology are juxtaposed with the work of post-war artists. The exhibition is part of the museum’s longer-term research project where the museum’s collection will be approached, interpreted and presented in an experimental way. Entitled 100 Years of De Stijl, the exhibition will be on view until May 21st, 2017.

Matisse and Diebenkorn at SFMOMA

Presenting a new view of two of the twentieth century’s most extraordinary painters, Matisse/Diebenkorn presented at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is the first major exhibition to explore the profound inspiration Richard Diebenkorn found in the work of Henri Matisse. The exhibition will bring together 100 seminal paintings and drawings – 40 by Matisse and 60 by Diebenkorn – that will show the connections between these two artists in subject, style, color, and technique. The exhibition spans across the arc of Diebenkorn’s career, all in direct dialogue with artworks by Matisse that he admired greatly. The exhibition Matisse/Diebenkorn will be on view from March 11th until May 29th, 2017.

William Eggleston at National Gallery of Victoria

As one of the most important photographers of the twentieth century, William Eggleston holds an ongoing influence on subsequent generations of photographers and artists. He is best known for his pioneering use of color and images of suburban life in the Southern United States. The National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne is organizing the first comprehensive museum exhibition devoted to the artist’s remarkable portraits. These photographs capture family, friends, casual acquaintances and strangers in a series of eloquent, poetic character studies and collectively form a social portrait of a time, place, and way of life. The exhibition William Eggleston: Portraits will be on view fromMarch 17th until June 18th, 2017.

Robert Rauschenberg at MOMA

An artist whose work shaped artistic practice for decades to come, Robert Rauschenberg challenged the tradition of Abstract Expressionism with an egalitarian approach to materials, bringing the stuff of the everyday world into his art. The Museum of Modern Art in New York will organize the first 21st-century retrospective of the artist, presenting his work from six decades through over 250 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, and sound and video recordings. Structured as an open monograph, the exhibition will map how other creatives such as John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Sari Dienes, Jasper Johns, Billy Klüver, Yvonne Rainer, Paul Taylor, David Tudor, Cy Twombly, Susan Weil, and many others came to his life and influenced his work. Titled Robert Rauschenberg, the exhibition will be on view from May 21st until September 17th, 2017.

Egyptian Surrealism at Tate Modern

The exhibition Surrealism in Egypt: Art and Liberty 1938-1948 at Tate Modern uncovers how Surrealism developed beyond Europe and influenced Cairo’s art scene. As the first comprehensive museum exhibition about the Art and Liberty Group, the display will show how politically engaged collective of artists and writers lived and worked in Cairo in the late 1930s until the late 1940s. Emerging out of the travel, correspondence, and conversation with international artists such as André Breton or Lee Miller, this group played a seminal role in introducing surrealism to the Cairo art scene. The exhibition will feature numerous paintings, photographs and archival documents that will be on view in the UK for the first time. The exhibition Surrealism in Egypt: Art and Liberty 1938-1948 will be on view at Tate Modern Liverpool from November 17th, 2017 until March 11th, 2018.